No transfer and saying goodbye to Mission President and excited for the new one

Satan knows you....and he knows me, and has been working at my weaknesses big time this week. The world cup is in full force and is everywhere...ok not really because the southerners have yet to fully embrace the beautiful game. But we were taken out to eat twice by members this week, and at each restaurant the game is being played. But missionary work is waaaay better than soccer, yuup I said it, and I liked it. (haha, there was a less active I used to work with who had a tendency to cuss. Everytime she would I'd give her "the look", to which she'd glare at me and defiantly say "that's right, I said it, and I liked it!!")

Here's a shnippet from the week:)
oh yeah annnnnnd....I'M STAYING IN ANDERSON FOR ANOTHER 6 WEEKS! I've been here for 4 transfers already, so we were all anticipating that I'd be packing my bags, but transfer calls proved otherwise. Sis Hendrix and I are stoked!

Ren is always a little miracle for us. We stopped by, no one was home. How is it that this always happens even though she’s retired and says she just sits at home all day. We wandered a ways down the road to a less active family. The only ones home to greet us at the Ford residence were their goats and Chihuahuas. However, Heavenly Father stalled us just long enough so that when we were at Ren’s home she pulled up behind us and jolted us with a honk. She let us come in and share the restoration again. I think the spirit’s been softening someone’s heart, she was super open to what we said and said she’d start reading from the BoM and try to come to church.

I feel like so many of my stories have to do with food, but that’s what South Carolina is. Eating is an activity. You drive up and down the main street of Anderson and they don’t really have anything else except restaurants, there’s one little theatre, an old bowling alley out of town, but the rest of it is every popular restaurant franchise you could ever want. Anyways, for lunch we met Shayla and her less active friend Gabe at the mall. There we experienced the funniest 2 little Asian restaurants. One was Japanese the other was Chinese. They were right next to each other, and if they caught you glancing at their menu they’d start shouting at you in thick accents to come have a free sample. If you went to one for the sample the other would start shouting at you to come try theirs. They would then go back and forth thrusting food stabbed on toothpicks at you. It was a good time, in the end though I just got Mexican because I felt too guilty deciding between the 2. It was good to talk with Gabe, he knows what’s true he’s just having a hard time taking that first step back.

We had a good time before Sis Campbell showed up for our lesson with Alisha.  We were following up on what Alisha had read and watched and her some James comes into the kitchen to make himself some pancakes. Alisha’s back is to the kitchen, suddenly we hear a “THWACK-THWACK-THWACK-THWACK-THWACK” I looked over and James had opened a cupboard door that was just long enough that the ceiling fan hit it when it was open. He stood there looking at it for a second, then finally shut it. Alisha however didn’t even turn around, but a “what now?” look came on her face. We all busted up laughing and took a minute to regain our composure.

Zone conference! This was the last time meeting with President and Sister Holm before they’d be heading home and Pres. and Sis Turner would be taking the reins of SCCM. I'm going to miss the Holms sooo much, but I'm excited for what Pres and Sis Turner will bring to SCCM. It is such a relief to be able to trust that Heavenly Father knows best, and He knows how to best reach the missionaries and people of the South Carolina Columbia Mission.

Later that night we had a lesson with Melanie. She’s a referral from the elders. She was diagnosed with stage 4 liver cancer and before her surgery to remove the kidney her mother (who’s a member in Florida) arranged for the elders to give her a blessing. She lives in our area, so they passed her off to us, and I’m so glad! Her mom was actually still there visiting, and was a bit on the talkative side. So Sis Hendrix and I divided and conquered. She spoke with the mom, and I taught the first lesson to Melanie. After sharing the first vision she said it was as if she felt like there were  hands upon her, and could feel a light tingle. By the end she readily accepted the invitation be baptized. She’s the sweetest lady, her husband’s gone at work, but she said she was bringing him along with her. She’s really just so prepared and ready for this. Her experience has helped her realign her priorities and brought her close to God, there was a very special spirit there and we could tell she was very sensitive to it as well. It was beautiful, annnnd we were counting the miracles when we realized all of the extra miles we have for the month which will allow us to make lots of contact with her even though she lives out in Belton.

what else???

I love this work!

The car wash just ate my $10

The high is only supposed to be 93 degrees this week!

we get to go to girls camp this wednesday to talk to the YW

love y'all

Sister Smith